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Master's Thesis

This is the (hopefully permanent) landing page for my master’s thesis and the sheet music I released through the Mutopia project.

My master’s thesis is entitled Philippe de Monte’s Primo libro de madrigalil a tre voci (1582): A Modern Edition and Analysis and can be downloaded in its entirety from the University of Calgary’s institutional repository. As the title suggests, it’s a print release of all the madrigals in Monte’s first book of madrigals for three voices, together with a brief history of Monte and the madrigal in general and a discussion of where the source materials are found and how I transcribed/translated them.

The abstract:

One of the most important secular vocal genres of the sixteenth century was the Italian madrigal. From 1520 to 1620, composers of many nationalities contributed to what is now a vast repertoire. None, however, was as prolific as Philippe de Monte (1521–1603), who published no fewer than thirty-four madrigal collections. It is paradoxical, then, that he and his works have been so little studied. Of the hundreds of volumes of modern editions of early polyphony published in recent decades, only five have been dedicated to Monte’s secular madrigals. This study aims to improve our knowledge of Monte’s work by transcribing and discussing his first (and only) book of three-voice madrigals, published in 1582 (RISM A/I: M3376).

I have released the source files of the thesis edition of the transcription through the Mutopia project. I am releasing these files under the CC By 4.0 International licence.